Populism and international affairs: The case of Spain

Abstract

Populists in southern Europe and potentially beyond display a distinctive understanding of international relations, such as the belief that national or the “people's” sovereignty must be the main organizing principle of international affairs, a preference for a multipolar world, suspicion of multilateral governance institutions, and sympathy toward Russia and/or China. This phenomenon represents a potentially fruitful domain for scholarly inquiry to answer questions such as: what are some of the ontological features of populism and how are these elements connected to patterns of foreign policy preferences? This essay aims to provide tentative answers to these questions with a focus on Spain.